President Trump blasted European regulation and trade policies in a video appearance on Thursday at the World Economic Forum, pledging to slap tariffs on companies that choose to produce outside of the United States.
For months, Europe has been bracing for possible trade restrictions under a new Trump administration. But while Mr. Trump pledged across-the-board tariffs during the campaign, many economists and analysts have viewed those threats as more of a bargaining chip than a concrete plan.
But for now, the new president doubled down on Thursday.
Speaking to corporate global executives and politicians gathered at the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump renewed his pledge to quickly end the war in Ukraine and called for more European military spending. But high on his list of complaints was what he called “unfair” European trading practices.
“They don’t take our farm — essentially don’t take our farm products,” he said. “And they don’t take our cars” and “make it very difficult to bring products into Europe,” he added. (Europe does import both farm products and cars from the United States, though not as much as it exports.)
“We have, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of deficits with the E.U., and nobody’s happy with it,” Mr. Trump said of the European Union. “We’re going to do something about it.”
Mr. Trump did not specify what “something” might entail. But at another point in the speech he renewed his promise for across-the-board tariffs.
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